Attached for your convenience!

Phishing attacks ask you for your personal information, so scammers can log in to your accounts, steal your money, or even to steal your twitter account! Sometimes they ask you to reply to the email with this personal info, or to click a link leading to a form that asks this. Today’s Phishing Wall of Shame entry comes from Professor Marilyn F., who was savvy enough to know that when a suspicious email tries to get her to download and open a file, there is something fishy going on. Here is the email:

The file attached to this email was a “.HTM” file. HTM or HTML is the markup language that webpages are made of. This could contain phishing attempts, malicious code or illegal content. IT Staff looked at the contents of the file and saw it  contained a form requesting the user enter personal details. We opened the file to take a picture, however you should avoid ever downloading or opening attachments that you don’t trust, because they can cause harm to your computer. Here is what this file contained:

Don’t take the bait! Phishing attacks attempt to deceive​ you into giving up your private information by leading you to fraudulent websites. Learn more at: http://www.umb.edu/it/getting_services/security/phishing/

To report a phishing email or have questions about the authenticity of an email, please forward a copy: abuse@umb.edu.